John Winters is a Massachusetts native who has spent more than a decade as a journalist and still contributes to select publications. His work has appeared in Salon, the Providence Phoenix, Runner's World, Playboy, The Patriot Ledger, Rhode Island
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John Winters is a Massachusetts native who has spent more than a decade as a journalist and still contributes to select publications. His work has appeared in Salon, the Providence Phoenix, Runner's World, Playboy, The Patriot Ledger, Rhode Island Monthly, Art New England, as well as daily papers across southeastern Massachusetts and various websites. His short stories have appeared in literary journals. He is the author of the novel, Murderhouse Blues, and the short story collection, Coulda Been Somebody. John is an adjunct faculty member at Bridgewater State University, where he teaches English.

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Nov. 19, 2013
12:01 a.m.

The 1913 Armory Show.

Spend any time in museums, painting classes or reading about the history of art and you’re bound to run into multiple references to this momentous exhibition.

Held Feb. 17 through March 15, 1913, in New York City's 69th Regiment Armory, the show went a long way toward changing the way Americans thought about art. Modern works from Europe were displayed alongside American art of similar ilk, and soon enough the winds of change began blowing. Beauty and technique would fade as the primary standards of great art, and creativity and originality would come to be privileged. The Armory Show brought a fundamental transformation in American art; and its effects are still felt today.

In “The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp and the 1913 Armory Show that Scandalized America” (Lyons Press, 208 pages), Elizabeth Lunday shows how this mythic event became a beachhead of sorts helping launch what would become America’s modern art movement.

“American art institutions as a whole were shaken by the force of the Armory Show – the blast sent old establishments with rotting foundations tumbling to the ground,” Lunday writes.

The show did not materialize overnight, and its effects, though profound, would not be fully realized until decades later. “The Modern Art Invasion” depicts all this by sharing the stories of the artists and organizers who made history a century ago.

In the decades before the show, Europe had been a hotbed of innovation. Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, and other movements helped make the Continent, Paris especially, the place to be for young and adventurous artists. Meanwhile, in America, the National Academy of Design kept stateside artists locked in the past. “Originality is the bane of art. Art is a matter of evolution; a new note is not struck more than once in a thousand years.” These words by the American artist William Ordway Partridge pretty much summed up the academy’s outlook and the stasis American art was in circa 1911.

One rebel, Robert Henri, put together a group of American artists interested in challenging the academy, but it, too, soon became restrictive and staid.

Lunday chronicles these developments and sets the stage for the entrance of the three men who would dare challenge the status quo by founding the Association of American Painters and Sculptors and dreaming of a game-changing exhibition. Walt Kuhn was the ever-optimistic painter looking to stretch in new directions; Arthur B. Davies was a fellow painter with two wives and a penchant for raising money and hackles; and Walter Pach was an artist, critic and all around art world pro, who had the connections overseas necessary to bring in the best in European art.

The Armory Show, known officially as the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art, featured roughly 1,300 paintings, drawings and sculptures, including most famously Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase.” Nearly 300 artists exhibited work at the show, including some who are today household names: Degas, Cassatt, van Gogh, Matisse, Munch and Monet. Meanwhile, Edward Hopper made his first sale at the show (it would be another decade before his second). Guests included everyone from members of the academy to former president Teddy Roosevelt himself (who thought the new art was “fatuous”). The general public, drawn by the outrageous headlines, came in droves.

Lunday chronicles the responses and the immediate impact of the show – Cubist party, anyone? Some wanted in on the revolution, while others sneered in derision. When the show traveled to Chicago, the catcalls were deafening; in Boston the exhibition drew a collective ho-hum.

When it was over, one organizer said to another: “It was a good show, but don’t do it again.” Lunday then traces the Armory Show’s impact in the ensuing decades, leading us to Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionist movement.

“The Modern Art Invasion” ultimately uses the famous 1913 exhibition as a lens through which to view art history going back more than a century. The author has fit into this trim volume a world of insight, interesting life stories and plenty of art history. It’s a fun read and essential to anyone interested in learning how American art of the 20th century came to be.